A Tangled Web
by Tripping to infintiy
Summary: A new party is coming into view in the deadly seele Nerv circle. This new party is not earth bound however
1. A new beginning

Hello all you Eva fans out there. This is now my fifth attempt at writing this same fan fic. Each time I try something happens to it and I have to start back at square 1. Also as my series progresses (if you like it) I can make pics of some of the battles. I am an Eva nut. Leaning more towards the robots and in terms of what each can do. So I have all the new action figures 00 - 04 and will be trying to make my own units 5 and 6. You'll see them later in the series.   
  
The story line so far is the norm. The 13th angel has been defeated and things are going back to the stark terror that is the habitual working mood at Nerv. Approximately 2 weeks after the attack, they get a panic call in from Nerv division 2 in America, one that is immediately intercepted by Gendo. All activity at the Eva production site is hastily stopped and they move the projects to a different site somewhere farther out into the desert. Another week passes when Nerv receives a report that says that the S2 engine research has been discontinued due to unexpected complications, which are not specified on the report. The report is deemed classified and it has been buried henceforth. Completion of Eva unit 04 is due to happen in the next week. Eva unit 03 is now ready for shipping.  
  
  
Our story opens out onto a dark and cloudy night. Below this troubled sky lies a nondescript American air force base. All its runways lie empty except for one. The mammoth type-f transport plane stands ready for take off, it cargo suspended below it.   
Control, control this is transport 1 we are go for delivery, what the status on owe flight path radios the pilot, a touch of anxiety detectable in his voice. He doesn't want to see this thing on American soil an more and wishes very much to be rid of the beast.  
Transport 1 this is control. Your flight path is clear all the way to Tokyo 3. Just be careful not to drop it. We don't want 3 quarters of a billion dollars wasted.  
Don't worry. I'd have to drive this thing into the ground and then land a mountain on it to hurt it. I just want it out of my country.  
Can't see why, it is after all, Americas legacy to the human race. Our part in saving the world.  
What ever. We'll check in half way there. Transport 1 taking off.  
And with that the engines flare to life with a deafening roar that signal the start of one of mankind's few hopes for the future. Evangelion unit 03 is coming.  
  
ON ROUTE  
The sky ahead of Evangelion transport 1 is thick with large yet unassuming clouds.   
"Transport 1 please come in, we are reading heavy turbulence in that storm ahead. It just jumped up out of nowhere and it looks like all hells breaking loose. Suggest that you steer clear of it."   
"Control we read you. But I don't think that anything could harm this behemoth. Especially not a little wind."  
" We have evidence of thunder heads forming farther in. Lightning strikes could be possible."  
"We read. Alright we'll play it your way. We are coming around to 75 degrees west of our original flight plan. We'll try to swing around it and get back to our designated flight path. If this thing is to big however we may have to go through it anyway. We don't have enough fuel to play around."  
"Copy. You should only have to deviate for approximately 25 minutes and then you can duck through the side of it."  
"Copy. Will do."  
The massive transport plane angles up on a wing and surges off west ward.  
  
TOKYO 3 JSSDF BASE  
  
It is a bright shining day out and the sky is perfectly clear. Ahead just over the runway, the enormous silhouette of Evangelion transport 1 and its precious cargo are visible. There are only people out to greet the beast though.   
"These Americans. They make a big stink about getting unit three out here as fast as possible and they turn out to be an hour late." Fumes Misato Katsuragi. "First that panic call from Nerv second branch, now the rush to get these things out of the country and to us. What's it all about. And then we hear that the S2 engine project has been canceled." She stalks around the front of the huge flat bed truck that they have parked at the end of the runway.  
" I don't know any more about it that you do. But as to the delay, they fit a huge storm on the way over and they had to take a detour. They were only aiming for a 40 minute delay, but the storm got a lot worse as they went in and they had to make another correction." Ritsuko Akagi doesn't look up from her key pad as she speaks but continue to stare at the screen.  
Misato thinks to herself "Yeah right. You know all about those incidents and what's behind them. I think the first time you actually volunteer information, half the command staff would faint" She smirks. "So when are the activation tests scheduled for?" Misato asks leaning against the side of the truck.  
"They'll be taking place tomorrow." She says looking at misato finally. "The pilot has been notified."  
"Does shinji know yet."  
"I don't think so. If the pilot himself hasn't told him then he might not know until the first engagement."  
" I'll make sure that doesn't happen."  
A few minutes later the transport has touched down and is taxiing toward their position. The transport stops over the flat bed and the cargo is lowered onto the back of the truck, which sinks a few centimeters under the weight of this thing. With the loading complete, the truck immediately roars off to Nerv headquarters pausing only briefly to pick up its military escort. Evangelion unit 03 has reached the end of its first journey. It remains to be seen if it can stand the trails yet to come.  
  
THE NEXT DAY  
As the bell rings for the lunch period to start Shinji and Kensuke can be found out on the balcony. Kensuke is leaning over head on his hands with Shinji standing next to him.  
"I heard that unit 03 arrived yesterday and that the activation trials are scheduled for this afternoon."  
Not for the first time shinji wonders how and from whom kensuke hears these things. "If misato ever found out who she would probably have that persons legs broken."  
He looks at kensuke and nods. "I didn't know that. I wonder who the pilot is."  
"Jeeze don't they tell you pilots anything." He sighs heavily " I wish I could be the pilot. I'm really enthusiastic about it. Why won't she let me be the pilot?"  
"Probably to keep you alive." Mutters shinji to himself.  
Kensuke doesn't notice.  
  
NERV HEADQUARTERS  
Deep below the city, in the reason for its creation, unit 03 sits motionless as it is strapped to the wall of the isolated testing facility. The room is huge, white paneling stretching all around it. Only two sets of windows connect it with the outside.   
  
"Restraints A - F are in place lower arms being locked down now."  
The Eva's arms stiffen as they are locked in place.  
"Lower arms secure, final safety checks complete. All we now is the pilot and then we can proceed." A young technician says from his post."  
"Very well." Ristuko says to the technician. She bends down to the microphone. "Mister suzahara, you may now board your entry plug and stand by."  
High above the eva on a catwalk sits a figure in a black plug suit. He does not move as the order comes over the intercom. He stares for a few minutes more at the behemoth below him that would soon become an inseparable part of his life from here on in. " Mister Suzahara."   
"Yeah yeah I'm going."  
Toji eyes the huge form below him one last time, then steps into the entry plug, sits down and watches the hatch close on him. Cutting him off from the outside world.  
"Commencing LCL injection, filling entry plug", comes a voice over the com. Liquid begins to fill the container and Toji soon finds himself immersed in liquid. "Just relax and breath deeply, you'll get used to it." Says the voice of the technician.  
"Toji holds his breath for a few more minutes but then gives in to the instinct to breath. "I think I'm going to be sick.  
"Don't worry, just try to consentrate", This comes not from the technician, however, but from a woman. "My name is doctor Akagi. I will be monitoring your test."  
  
In the control room there is an air of barely contained excitement and fear. Evas were dangerous toys. Toys that broke when everyone said there was no danger. Each time they had attempted a start up procedure, some thing always went wrong. The worst of which Unit 00 broke free and tried to smash it's way through to the observation and control room. What would go wrong this time. Ritsuko's mind flashes back to a phrase her mother used to describe the Eva project. " Any thing that can go wrong will go wrong with these things".   
  
The technician turned around to face her, " we are ready to begin the activation test doctor."  
"Proceed."  
With that activity in the room increases by a factor of four.  
"Connecting secondary nerve links"   
" all indicators are normal"  
"Psycho graph showing signs of stress, still within limits"   
" Power increasing" "Connecting first stage circuits"  
" All nerve pulls are flowing forward. Synch ratio building"  
" final nerve connections complete."   
"Releasing final safety locks"  
" approaching absolute borderline"  
Inside the entry plug Toji Suzahara is given a sight unlike anything he has ever seen. The wall in front of him begins to change rapidly from a wall to a rainbow of color, then to a mass of living tissue, then remarkable to a view of outside the Eva. Like looking threw the eyes of child hood, staring out of a new set of eyes.  
"Absolute borderline approaching"  
9   
8  
7  
6  
5  
4  
3  
2  
1  
"Absolute borderline reached"  
Misato Katsuragi, who until now has remained silent watch the proceedings with bated breath, now watches the graph as the line flickers holds for a moment on the borderline indicator, and with a loud tone, the graph begins to climb above slowly.  
"Absolute borderline cleared.  
The Eva outside the windows straightens visible as energy courses through its body.  
For a few moments, no one moves. They all appear to be waiting for some sort of catastrophe to befall them. Yet none comes.  
"What!!" says major Katsuragi, startling everyone except for the doctor. " No explosion, no screaming Eva, no AT field detected. You mean to tell me that one of these things actually started up normally." She reminds her self that switching on a 1000-foot tall behemoth by inserting a living person as the key is hardly normal. "Or as normal as can be expected."  
" Yes major. Apparently the Americans actually did a good job."  
"I'll believe it when it says made in America on the back."  



	2. An unexpected Visitor

Part 2

Part 2

Nerv Headquarters- Evangelion pilot ready room 

Shinji Ikari the famed third child is at the moment sitting quietly awaiting the arrival of the new addition to the roster. He was a little upset that he had not been let into the observation room. Rei had been present when her Eva had tried to take him over. What could have been so dangerous that he wouldn't be let in? 

As he sits contemplating all the horrible things that might have brought about the decree when he hears the door slide open. He rises to greet the new pilot but stops and stares as the one person he would never expect to see here came around the corner.

"T…Toji!" stammers Shinji

"Uh Hi" is the only answer Suzahara can come up with.

"What are you doing here. You not suppose to…" The young boy trails off as he notices the black plug suit his friend is dressed in. " Why are you wearing one if those." Shinji asks, hoping for a miracle answer like he had stolen it.

" I wanted to tell you earlier but I could do it. But I guess the cats out of the bag now." Toji smiled weakly as he stands unsure of what to do next. " I'm the new pilot of unit 03."

**NERV CENTRAL- the Geo Front**

IN the belly of the geo front Nerv central headquarters lies silent but active and alert to almost anything that the world has to offer. Yet that is precisely the opposite of what they are facing in the way of enemies as they are most definitely not of this world. And just now down in the nerve center of the operation something is being closely monitored, for it may be another test for the vaunted defenses of the most advanced target man kind has ever made.

"It just appeared at the edge of our detectors, an anomalous wave pattern. Our subterranean monitoring units in sector 8 recorded it about an hour ago but since then there has been no change in underground activity since then." Hyuga said. He was, as usual, at his console and was just now regretting telling the subcommander about this. He had that look on his face that meant he was going to investigate into this. 

"Is this the first time we've picked anything over there." Asked the subcommander. He wanted to make sure this wasn't a lucky forwarning of comeing events.

"No sir. Sector 8 is on the other side of Japan. Aside from the explosions we get from here when an angel attacks we don't hear anything from there. That sector is actually scheduled for dismantling next year as it doesn't really serve a use."

" Stay alert on that channel. If you pick up any other noise prints, report it."

"Yes sir."

****

SECTOR 8

The 13th angel had come to ground. Quit literally. The body now forming had to adapt to extreme pressure and bedrock. But all that would be put aside for now it felt the pull to touch the face of god. To touch its creator. A surge of rock, an explosion gone unseen 2 miles below the surface of the earth and Judgement day's newest avatar has been born to herald in another chapter in the fate of man.

****

CENTRAL DOGMA

Hyuga was starring at the screen, waiting for something to happen. He almost wished for something exciting to happen, but then that might lead to the granting of that wish. In Nerv wishes were usually bad. "I wonder what I'm going to be talked into doing tonight. I think I'll just volunteer to work and surprise everyone." He just about to smile at that fact when a spike appeared on his board. 9.9 in strength in strength….and growing. 

Hyuga glanced down at the flashing alarm button on the console and agreed with it immediately "Sub-commander!!" he yelled out to command station above. "We have another reading sir. A huge noise print located in sector 8. It almost looked like an explosion.

Fuyutski came down from the command ring and stopped dead over the monitor. The spike, registered earlier, had gone off the charts. "This could only be caused by an angel." He thought to himself. As if to confirm his thoughts, another spike appeared. While it paled in comparison to first one it was strong enough to be considered a threat.

"Commander. We have a problem. The strength of these readings can only indicate one thing." Said Hyuga.

The commander is in the Gendo stare position as usual. And is in no way surprised by the news. "Yes, another angel." Fuyutski nods and Hyuga slams his hand down on the alarm.

Misato surges into the command arena the sub-commander and Hyuga glued to the monitor read outs. " Status of target." 

"The sub-commander straightens up and turns to her. " The seismic readouts indicate that the target is definitely subterranean, and is moving straight toward us."

"Its Subterranean! We don't have anything to counter that." Misato exclaims

"True," Ritsuko is sitting at command console and typing crazily, "But there might be a way."

"Your offering me a plan of action. ? This is a surprise."

"Well my track record up to now seems to be unblemished, compared to yours." This shuts Misato up completely. She knows all to well not to argue with Ritsuko on something that was already shaky. 

"Up to now, when ever an angel has come within range of an Eva, it has attacked. This because of the AT field. We might be able to lure it to the surface if we deploy the Evas in front of the city on and intercept path with the target and have them spread their AT fields at full power." Says Ritsuko who until recently has been sitting at the console on the other side of the sub-commander and Hyuga.

"So you want to go fishing basically, we tried that before and eva 02 almost got eaten the blow up"

"Yes, but this is a totally different environment from the pacific fleet and judging by the size of the readings, it is about as long as an eva and rough twice that in mass."

"Alright you win." She hated to swallow her pride. It never tasted good. "We have enough Evas to carry off the plan with minimal losses. But we keep unit 03 inside the geo front perimeter." She would rather go out there herself than let one of Shinji's only friends gets killed at her behest. He would be crushed if that were to happen and then they would be in real trouble. She turns to the commander for approval.

"Major Katsuragi." The commander stands and gestures to her, "It is your operation. Handle it." He turns and leaves the Command tower through the "escape elevator"™ 

They stared for bit at where the commander had been. When ever he moved it was a bit like Lazarus waking up and asking to see the president. Misato was the first to move. She turned to Ritsuko, "alright, get me an exact range measurement for the spacing of our units at maximum efficiency." She turns to Hyuga " Get Evas prepped for launch." She pauses then adds " What's the time frame on this operation?" 

"About an hour, if the readings remain constant."

"Do me a favor and get the children up hear, I want you bring the available data up on the screen for me so I can show them what there going to be facing."

"Will do."

***

After about 30 minutes of frenzied preparation, the children arrive in plug suits facing the huge screen that stretches away into the cavernous opening that spans Terminal Dogma. It showed a series of blips all located on a straight-line path toward Tokyo 3.

"The 13th angel is on its way hear and it is coming fast. We estimate we have 30 minutes before it comes into contact with the armor of the Geo Front. The plan is to deploy Eva units 01 – 02 up top around the city here." A square appears on the map indicating the mountain range around the city to the north. It then zooms in to a specific spot with two blips on it. "Unit 00 will be kept back in the city as backup for the mountain units. We are going to try and draw it up outside the city by having you spread your AT fields to maximum. If it acts acording to plan then you will converge on the target and destroy it."

"What happens to unit 03." Shinji's voice was cold. 

"Unit 03 will be kept in the Geo Front as a back up and alternate defense in case the angel doesn't take the bait."

Asuka was not impressed by the plan. "Feh, this should be a piece of cake." She turns to Toji, " Now you just relax, sit back and watch how a real pilot handles things okay."

Toji remains silent but grimaces. (Flash back to the locker room)

_Shinji had stood up quite suddenly to face Toji. "You're the new pilot! How could you do this, agree to this? Do you know what your doing?!!" Shinji's voice had risen slightly._

"I know what I'm doing Shinji. I accepted the consequences of this when I agreed. I remember how you suffered in the Eva when Kensuke and I hitched a ride that time. I know that it's dangerous. I know that every time I go out I might not come back, but at least I will have a chance of protecting my sister form the same thing that happened that first battle." Toji was stone faced as he said this. It was taking all of his determination to get this out in the open_. " Besides, Misato will be really impressed." _Toji was now standing proudly hands on his hips and smiling.

__

Toji seemed to realize that his bravado was not doing a thing so he dropped his hands and sat down next to Shinji. He looked stunned "_Look, the only reason I joined up was on the condition that my sister would be transferred to the medical department here at Nerv. I mean they have much better facilities here than at the hospital._

Shinji had look so down cast and frightened. Toji wondered if he might have been right about the danger involved. He heard Misato's voice and started " Huh, what was that?" 

"I said that you are going to be equipped with the standard pallet gun as well as a positron rifle"

Asuka was indignant. "What?!! You're going to let that stooge use a positron rifle. He'll probably blow away half of the city." 

Toji privately thought the same, but he would never admit it " Yeah right, the only part of the city I'd vaporize would be the part you're standing on!"

"What you little.."

Misato stopped the skirmish before it got out of hand. "Stop this right now you two. We don't have time for this. That angel will be here in about 25 minutes and we need everyone to work together."

"Humph." Asuka turned and stormed out "Just stay out of our way." Was her last parting shot.

The rest of the children filed out silently except for Toji's "Bitch" 

* 20 minutes later*

Toji was still not used to being drowned every time he had to pilot Eva. Even now his stomach turned as he worked to breathe in the LCL fluid. The view in front of him was that of the Eva launch bay. The other Evas were secured to scaffolds and look some how diminished from the way they looked in the city. But in the city they loomed over the buildings. Here they were contained in a room. He began to wonder how big Nerv headquarters really was when Eva unit 01 began to move up toward a platform. It locked in place and then Eva 01 and 02 began to move up still locked into the scaffolds at their backs. Then with a jolt his view began to move slowly to the left. Then came another jolt and his view became stationary. Understandably he had never seen an Eva launch. He was beginning to wonder what it would feel like when over the comm he hear Misato shout the order to launch. To the side of him he saw an explosion and unit 00 rocketed up the launch track. He just stared at the spot where unit 00 was in shock. 

Unit 02 was next to explode up the tube, then unit 01. He was next. He braced himself and then the view outside his tube was blur as he was pushed down in his pilot couch and he had to struggle to breath. The G-forces of the accent where brutal on the first timers. Then with a bone-wrenching jar, his Eva came to a stop inside the Geo Front.

"Alright, Toji I want you to move to predetermined coordinates and await further orders."

**Above in and around Tokyo 3**

Units 02, 01 were station in equidistant positions on and around the Northern mountain range. Or foothills compared to the gigantic forms, which now were crouched and powered down, awaiting for the signal to activate their AT fields.

There came a signal over the Comm " Okay, the angel is approximately 3 miles from Units 01 and 02. Prepare for activation. Unit 00 standby. Target nearly beneath you" Misato got three acknowledgements from the surface force. She looked at the enormous view screen. The target blip had not changed course or speed. The counter moved downward and then stopped for a second on the 5 minute mark. "Engage AT fields. Shinji snapped to attention and willed the enormous being that encompassed him, to life. He found the part of his mind that was the AT field and concentrated on it. Outside in the mountains the air around seemed to distort and then bend outward and a howl of wind as the Evas will imposed itself on its surroundings. 

Back in the control room Misato saw the blip of the target stop it's on coming course. Then an indicator on Hyugas board lit up, signaling lateral movement. " Asuka, Shinji Target is move up prepare to engage.

Shinji acknowledged and waited for the angel to show. But instead nothing happened. After a minute began to feel a vibration. This threw him for a loop. A vibration that he could feel inside the entry plug had to be powerful enough to get through the twelve layers of special armor and shock absorbing equipment the encased the EVA. Also that he was some 800-900 feet off the ground. This was one very powerful vibration. Misato's voice came over the intercom in a panic. " Shinji MOVE."

The ground seemed to explode at him.


End file.
